


Wide asleep

by EllaStorm



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Motel Rooms, Nostalgia, Swimming Pools, summers in the south
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-03
Updated: 2015-06-03
Packaged: 2018-04-02 16:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4066009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllaStorm/pseuds/EllaStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Utah, July 1999. In the swelter of a hot summer night, Dean goes slowly insane, trapped between sleep and wakefulness, and that slow twist in his gut when he looks at his brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wide asleep

The air is humid, too thick to breathe even at night, and it’s driving Dean slowly insane. He’s kicked the covers off one hour ago, lost the shirt even before that; and still he feels like there’s no breathable oxygen in the tiny motel room. His next restless twist on the mattress in desperate search for a cool spot brings him close to falling off the bed, and he gives up. He needs to get out of here.

 

From outside the neon lights of the vacancy sign produce a distinct red stripe on the linoleum floor, as Dean pads across the room. Sammy’s softly snoring in the other bed, his lanky, sixteen-year-old limbs sprawled all over the sheets, sweaty strands of hair sticking to the nape of his neck. Dean ignores the slow, viscous twist in his stomach, and makes sure to sneak out as quietly as he can.

 

Summer air hits his face as soon as he steps outside, but at least it’s fresh, not half as sweltering and molasses-thick as inside the room. He strolls across the asphalt towards the pitifully dry remains of brown grass the sun has left in the backyard. The tiny waves in the water-filled motel pool are reflecting the scarce light from just a few yards away, and suddenly, without making a conscious decision, Dean is running, jumping, breaking through the smooth surface of the basin. Wetness surrounds him, cool and welcome; and finally, under water, Dean feels like he might be able to breathe again.

 

He starts swimming, ten laps, twenty, fast, until he’s gasping for air and all the sweat is washed down from his skin. Eventually, he lies back in the water, grateful and unthinking, and stares up into the night sky. The stars are bright out here, in the middle of nowhere, Utah; and there’s a halo around the moon. Dean feels his head bump lightly against concrete, pulls himself back against the pool tiles, and closes his eyes. The soft sound of the water surrounding him, the pungent smell of chlorine and the breeze on his face make him feel oddly calm, take him somewhere between sleeping and dreaming, and nowhere close to being awake.

 

Next thing he knows is something touching his arm. It’s a soft touch, warm even underwater, and Dean grumbles approvingly before he opens his eyes, before he flinches away, and pushes that thing in his guts down, back to where it came from, because seeing Sam, gloriously naked and half-bathed in neon-tinged shadow staring back at him with intent in his eyes shouldn’t make honey collect at the base of his spine and mercury run through his veins faster than blood ever could. “You should be sleeping”, he manages, and Sam smiles, he _smiles,_ and says: “You, too.”

 

Dean wishes he could run, but Sam keeps looking at him like he knows something Dean doesn’t, and Dean is losing his mind, slowly, in his brother’s eyes, backed against the edge of a swimming pool under the Utah summer night sky. He’s losing his mind, and it’s Sam’s fault, because Sam has stopped smiling, Sam has drifted closer, Sam is touching him, and _how did this happen_?

 

There’s a halo around the moon, and neon-red-stripes of light on the concrete floor of the motel backyard. There’s the smell of chlorine in the air, and lips pressed against Dean’s, soft lips, demanding lips, and Dean lets it happen, defeated in his lack of denial, lets that honey-sweet guilt drip down his spine, and kisses Sam back with all he’s got.


End file.
